Urban Reviewing Updates

PEER REVIEWS
The feedback I received from peer reviews was very positive. The most important point everyone made was that there is a lot of concentration on suicide.
If the view-masters all had suicidal scenes, then the whole thing would become too predictable.
They all expressed that they would rather see more of the small scenes that make the city dark.
Scenes as such included from the feedback for example a person dead or injured on the floor and people passing by next to them without helping them.
Also other examples would be someone stealing a cab from a pregnant woman, or cursing someone behind their back by giving them the finger, and also a man molesting a woman. etc...
They also all liked the idea of the "where is waldo" type of thing and encouraged the scenes to be very subtle, and to have the user possible go through the reel more than once in case they missed something.
A person also mentioned the possible relation the 7 locations can have with the 7 deadly sins as a theme.

And so I think after this feedback I felt like I agreed with the idea that there was too much concentration being made on suicide, and it becomes more about that than about anomie.
So I'm going to take a step back and think of what I can do with the feedback they gave me.

SYMPOSIUM

Thinking of how to present the project at the symposium, I made a floor plan and a photoshop mock up.
I am also working on the poster look and feel (although i am still not sure how the poster fall into place) and the map for the locations of the view-masters.
I attached some sketches that I had made also about the content of the scenes, but I need to revisit that after the feedback I got from peer reviews.

PERMIT

Regarding the permit, I talked to Ms. Emily Colassaco, and it turns out the permit I need falls under ARTERVENTIONS
And here is the link:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/sidewalks/urbanart_prgm.shtml#arterventions
I would need to present documentation of exact locations with photoshop mockup and preferably a letter or signature from parsons.

-Grace

(download)

Friday Update: Feedback Pls!!

I've been working in the past week and a half trying to engage with people who keep their tech around. And while the data I found supports that people just have gadgets lying around unused, its been hard for me to find people willing to engage with me. I've harassed everyone I know and posted on ten or so NYC forums/message boards/clist and most people either gave it away before downsizing to NYC apts, still feel like one day they're going to try and get the data/info off their tech so they keep it around or try and use it (a la Zach/Grace/Yoav), want me to pay them money for their old tech, the list goes on...

But what this has made me realize is: a) I'm not really a social scientist and b) why am I waiting around for other people when I am, in part, my audience. My thesis should be personal, like the Song Dong MOMA reference Ethan gave me. This last realization has been the most salient in the past week or so. This has led me to is to really understand what my thesis is:

Recall is a collection of works which explores the different levels of death in gadgetry and ways to cope with the loss in a manner that acknowledges the increasing human-like relationships we form with these gadgets. These works examine my process of memorializing my own collection of unused gadgets and exploring various ways to honor the relationship I had/have with each device.

Specifically, the pieces in Recall are (all titles are placeholders):

1) Death of an iPhone

Death of an iPhone is an exploration of the slow way that new technology melts from our consciousness once we leave what Ryan Block calls "the lust phase." In NYC, iPhone purchases have become so saturated that ATT cannot even keep up with the coverage. In the year and a half that I've owned mine, I've seen so many people with one that over time it's lost a bit of luster in my own eyes. Has this game-changing phone become so ubiquitous that it has melding in with its environment or is the interface and technology no longer novel enough to distinguish it? Death of an iPhone is a ceramic triptych that questions the presence of this gadget by using the metaphor of melting. Using a mold from my own iPhone, each piece in the triptych will show the phone in different states of presence.

2) Adopt this Mac

Adopt this Mac looks at what happens to older gadgets when we buy new one and questions whether or not we act in the gadgets best interests when the device has reached relative obsolescence. Since I purchased a newer computer in 2007, my old desktop has been used less and less to the point that it is no longer being used. Although the natural inclination is to sell such gadgets for money, why is it not to find a better home for it? When a baby outgrows its clothes, we pass them along to another family member; when we have to give up a pet, we find a loving family for it to go to. Adopt this Mac documents my process of finding a good home for my old computer regardless of price, instead putting emphasis on the people who will own this once cherished device.

3) Burial for My Cellphone

Burial for My Cellphone examines the ways in which we part with our cellphones when they have died on us. When we lose any loved one, we memorialize them in different manners: burying the family dog underneath his favorite oak tree or keeping ashes on the mantle. Since we have such constant physical contact with our cellphones, why don't we follow the same burial rituals we would when we mourn the loss of anyone else? After carrying my last cellphone for over three and a half years, it became an integral part in my life. Burial for My Cellphone documents the process of me making a ceramic sarcophagus for that phone and burying it in the city where I formed the relationship with it.

4) Numbers from a SIM Card

Numbers from a SIM Card explores the way that stored data on our gadgets acts as a time capsule for the period we used it and questions the permanence of that data once the technology is obsolete. There is a reason why the ancients wrote on scrolls and carved into tablets: to preserve the information for posterity and capture that moment in time. On a micro level, my old SIM card represents this same type of stored information of the people I was in touch with during the 5 year period I used that SIM card. Yet will a SIM card still be used into the future? Numbers from a SIM Card is a time capsule that is meant to be open in ten years. Its contents will contain the phone numbers written in physical form and stored on the SIM card.

-Jen

Branding, Surveys, CSA, Wireframe Comps, and a Talk

BRANDING: After fretting over a name for my thesis, I am pleased to say I came up with a name I am really pleased with. I was sitting @ Dogmatic eating a gourmet lamb sausage with mint yogurt sauce and then BAM, FRECIPES. To me, Frecipes reminds me of being "fresh" and also hints and recipes. It's pretty fun to say out loud. I've included some sketches and logo concepts below.

SURVEY: I sent out another survey to get a feel of what kind of person eats local. I put together a quick 10 question survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/25R7ZVR) using surveymonkey. I sent it out to all my Facebook contacts (thank you to all who took the survey) and posted it on the Brooklyn Food Coalition NING network I am a part of (http://brooklynfoodcoalition.ning.com/). I received 53 responses. Take a peek at the survey (link above) and here's a summary of the responses:

  1. 63% Female
  2. 50% Age 25-30
  3. 75% get their produce from Farmers' Green Market
  4. 60% say they buy local because it tastes better
  5. 62% start with the ingredients first and then they search for a recipe that matches with their ingredients
  6. 92% would shop more at the green market if they knew what to do with the ingredients
  7. 43% say the quality of the produce is the deciding factor when purchasing, not really the price. Some other comments people had:
    1. "I love a good story. Any specialized information about the produce is a bonus."
    2. "Sentiment for the vendor"

I would assume mostly college educated, or higher, women shop at the green market because they are the ones preparing the food most of the time. Money doesn't seem to be of concern when purchasing and quality of the produce is the most important. They are aware local foods taste better, since it's not being specially bred to survive being transported hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. People also love a good story and would love to know where their food comes from.

CSA: I am pleased to announce I've taken the initiative to sign up for a CSA. There is usually a waiting list to get into a CSA and to my luck, the Clinton Hill CSA in Brooklyn sent me an email informing me of openings. Here's their site: (http://www.clintonhillcsa.org/). I'm really going local.

WIREFRAME COMPS: I've begun to layout what I would like my site to look and function like. These are just really rough comps and are definitely a work in progress. See the PDF below.

TALKS: I work a lot with The New School PR department and do a ton of freelance photography for events, talks, conferences, and gallery openings all over the New School. It gets me out to these events that I normally wouldn't go out to and it's proven to be a great place to network. This past Thursday, 25 Feb 2010, I had the honour of meeting Deputy Secretary of the USDA Kathleen Merrigan, her boss? Barack Obama. She spoke at the New School about the USDA's new Local Food initiative "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food (KYFKYF). I also met Thomas Forster, a professor at the New School and teaches Food Policy. He is also an active member of the Brooklyn Food Coalition (http://brooklynfoodconference.org/2009/06/thomas-forster-5-reasons-why-new-york-city-is-ground-zero-for-food-system-change/). There were a lot of city and state government officials, NGOs, at the talk. I met Marcel Van Ooyen, Executive Director of CENYC (Council on the Environment of New York City), he is basically the head of all the Green Markets in NYC. Marcel's wife works at McCann Erickson and she is working with General Mills on a local recipe web destination. I will be consulting with all of them and tapping their knowledge of sustainable agriculture through my thesis process. The USDA has 500M in grants and loans for sustainable agriculture. The final written form for my thesis will be a grant for funding.

AND...
I've been meeting with Davy Hughes, manager of the Union Square Green Market. He's developing a game that revolves around food and we've been bouncing ideas off of each other on game play dynamics. He sent me an email the other day with the idea of starting a local food film festival. He's been really great! Here's an excerpt of his email:

-------------------
These films are short, quirky, off-beat movies that highlight market bounty and the color therein. The color therein of course being both the diversity of local, fresh product AND the diversity human characters and interactions. The confluence of these two market aspects is where film ideas should germinate.

Films should leave the viewer with a strong sense of Union Square Greenmarket: a place worth frequenting, a place where the unexpected can happen, a place where people interact and connect with each other in a friendly, relaxed environment and of course a place to buy healthful, delicious food.
-------------------

The film festival would probably air sometime near the end of summer, perhaps in Union Square.
 

(download)

Click here to download:
splash01.pdf (1.88 MB)
(download)

(download)

new sketches for Converso

I met (via gchat on account of the weather) with my thesis advisor Mike Edwards today to discuss my new development plan.  I'm still trying to nail down exactly the functionality I want so Mike suggested I create some more rough to lay it all out.  Here they are:  

Click here to download:
sketches.pdf (4.53 MB)
(download)

 It sounds like the chat application might be easier to build if its a plugin inside of buddypress.  I was also thinking that a very low-tech solution might be a simple php application that gives you the skype names of people based on your preferences.  Then the user would just add those names to their current buddy list.  One downside to this though is that if you didn't want to give out your personal skype account you'd have to create a whole other account to use for Converso.  I'm hoping that this week I'll be able to narrow my options as well as get the paper prototyping done.    

Day 7: Thesis Concept Revised

 "I think it's a good time, before designing for Beth, that you revise your thesis concept. You must expand it since it clearly is no longer about young women and creating social networks. There is a need you would be addressing, a problem you would be solving, so your thesis concept should cover all of those possibilities (as well as your earlier t-shirt ideas.)" - Cynthia 

Concept:

 Socio-psychological issues are common and manifest in different ways throughout a Type 1 Diabetic's life. While insulin pump therapy has proven to be more efficient than injection therapy, the integration of machine with human body often causes anxiety for these individuals. Hanky Pancreas is a fashionable clothing and accessory line that aims to lessen these burdens through inclusive, empowering, and symbolically motivating design.

Argument:

If Hanky Pancreas is successful, Type 1 Diabetics will feel more empowered and less anxious about their illness in social situations leading to overall better health.

Audience:

Type 1 Diabetics who wear insulin pumps (focus on women)


Other Updates:

I emailed Beth asking what she thought about some of the insulin pump product sites & waiting to hear back from her before moving forward.

I have also been reading a lot about a term called "cyborg anxiety"

Historically, the cyborg has stood for the radical anxiety of human consciousness about its own embodiment at the moment that embodiment appears almost fully contingent.  Cyborg anxiety has stood for a panic oscillation between the "human" element (associated with affections, eros, error, innovation, projects begun in the face of mortality) and the "machine" element (the desire for long life, health, physical impermeability, self-contained control processes, dependability).  ~ Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr

refined wireframes

I just started to play with the interaction a little and see how one of the sketches I made yesterday would work as an application. There are just 3 stages right now.

(download)

My next task is to build on to my research and look for information on maintaining a level of proficiency with the language.

-Hilary

Relationships with Cellphones

I wish this were more developed than it is right now but I finally feel like I'm really getting into what I'm interested in. I perhaps should have spent this week creating forms more (as in totally should have!) but I think I've whittled away some generalities for a more specific inquiry:

How can we cultivate a relationship with our cellphones after getting a new one?
What can be designed to lengthen our relationships with our cellphones?

I'm not sure after typing it how it seems more specific but it does. After Cynthia gave me some feedback, I revisited Dunn & Raby's work. I feel a tighter connection with their Placebo Project but it was a good chance for me to go back and reread Hertzian Tales. I think it is useful for me to start thinking of my thesis as a psychosocial narrative, "the unique narrative potential of electronic products...and the idea that behavior is a narrative experience arising from the interaction between our desire to act through products and the social and behavioral limitations imposed on us through the conceptual models they impose" (Dunne 1999).
I think particularly that if I'm thinking about continuing a relationship, then I need to put some more thought into what the preexisting one is. I came across this guy Chris Hollander, who has a unique synthesis of probably the most common one: cell phone as

Img_0237

transition object (see http://tinyurl.com/y8v36tr) replacing a relationship. So what happens when you need to transition from your transition object? My thesis (hopefully). I sort of see them as replica devices that allow you to recycle the phone (am I back here already?) but still keep a sort of relationship with the device. Here are some sketches.

-Jen

Another try at a 3D composition

I made 7 frames where someone is committing suicide by stabbing themselves in public.
Although I know it's very unlikely for anyone to stab themselves in public, I'm just doing something simple and quick to make, so that I have something  to take tomorrow to Duggal if they can help me make small slide film prints.
Here is the link:
http://a.parsons.edu/~saleg912/storage/thesis/gStabbing.mov.zip

-Grace

day 7, looking at the bar graph

I think this is too literal, but playing with the ubiquitous bar graph in PowerPoint. The pages/slides before this one suggest that sometimes, PowerPoint is really great in the classroom - and sometimes, it's really terrible.

So what is the difference?

No connection between graph and content, so ... I think I just broke the rule I outlined in the last comment I posted. I like the interaction between the top layer and the bottom, though.

(download)